My days of growing up in Kuching, Sarawak I only ever known cangkuk manis or mani chai cooked 3 ways. In Pan Mee soup, fry with eggs and masak lemak like this. I have seen people adding to BiHoon goreng (fry vermicelli) etc but that’s individual prerogative I believe, not traditional but I can stand to be corrected of course.

I was lucky that a friend shared half her pumpkin with me but boy was it tough to slice. I was so worried that I would cut my fingers. Very stressful. Next time I will ask her to please slice for me too. – kekekekeke I sliced and freeze them waiting and waiting for fresh mani chai. Luckily I found them yesterday at my local Asian shop! I was so happy. Finally I can cook Mani Chai masak lemak.

My mother often refers to this vegetable as Lakian Chai. We eat it quite often including Midin. When we eat outside, if mother believes we are heaty then she would order mani chai and if not we would have Midin goreng belacan. Ah…..those were the days. This is a super easy dish to cook.

Firstly, fry the shallots, remove and keep aside. Do the same with the dried anchovies (ikan bilis). Then using the flavoured oil add in mince onions, lemon grass, garlic and fry.

Secondly, add in the turmeric, pumpkin, chicken stock cube, coconut milk, sliced red chillies or bird eyes chilies and simmer.

Lastly, bring to boil and simmer till your pumpkin has soften. Taste, season, heat off and add in your mani chai. After a good stir topped with the crispy shallots and anchovies. Serve hot.

Today is Thursday, the day hubby has to pop into his office. I like to cook him a surprise lunch every Thursday. I sent him to work this morning after giving him eggy bread and started to make my asam curry paste. I planned to finished cooking and showered by the time he comes back for lunch.

There are many ways of cooking this dish but this is the way I preferred mine to be cooked as this is the way I have eaten for as long as I could remember. I suppose like most dishes traditionally we are used to how our parents and grandparents cooked them.

As for me myself I still much preferred my fish to be seasoned and fried before adding to my asam curry sauce. Hence, I find it hard to eat fish curry outside and I always asked the vendor if they fried their fish first before placing my order.

As usual this is more as a guide than a fixed recipe as such. I have a pot of otak udang chilli that I have made the other day which I can add to my paste. If you do not have you can add a small handful of dried shrimps and blend with your paste. I also have daun kesom, laksa leaves, bravely surviving in the cold so I used some to boil my nasi kunyit.

As I am using oil to fry and aubergines and fish, I decided to also fry some keropok ikan and prawns from Kuching and some chicken and prawn wantons. This is because after frying my aubergines and fish I will throw away the oil. The oil will then have no more ‘strength’ for frying anything else. To try and reuse it some more will cause your cook to be very greasy!

p/s Otak udang – fried prawns heads with oil till crispy with garlic, salt, chilli and blitz in the blender to make a paste. Store in fridge and use at will.

On my last trip back to Devon, where I lived for close to a decade originally, a long time close friend gave me 2 huge lump of beef. A beef rump which I have portioned into steaks, cooked SousVide and a topside which I have been pondering what to cook with it. I have now decided it is going to be beef floss. Then I will surprise my friend by packing some and posting back to my friend so she can try and fill her breads with them as she is a very good baker, training and baking almost daily for the last few years!

Serunding daging – I will cook mine to how I like to taste. When we were young and the parents used to buy these in Malaysia I always tried to search hard for the nice strands and not the fine like ‘dust’ floss. They are more crispy and taste much nicer. I like to ‘chew’ food. Period. I love soft bones ribs and I will eat it all. I even chew 90% of a skate wing cartilage and enjoy them – kekekekeke

As I am cooking just over 3kg of beef I decided to do this in 2 days.

So the day before I cut my beef into smaller chunks and put them to boil in seasoned water till tender. Took me just over 3 hours. I let them cool before shredding them by hand while watching television. Stored them in containers till the next day.

The next day I peeled the stuff and blend the paste and started the frying process.

I like to boil my beef in seasoned water, not plain. I find this adds to the taste. Of course it is entirely up to you.

I also prefer to watch television and hand shred my beef. I do not want to use gadgets or pond them. Again it is entirely up to your choice. As for me I find the stages of cooking therapeutic.

TIP – If you want crispy Serunding daging be sure to add some oil at the end, to fry them a bit. Yummmmmmm…..crispy bits. Please refer to pics.

As in all my recipes please feel free to add or minus any of the ingredients to suits your taste. Tomorrow I will serve this in an innovative way (I hope) I just told a friend I have this idea knocking about and I am dangerous when I have an idea. I need guinea pigs – kekekekeke

Enjoy.

p/s I was just told this minute that this is very expensive to buy. Actually it is not hard to make. They longest time is the frying. However after the sauce have been all absorbed you can transfer to a paella pan to fry dry quicker. (I am just stubborn though I have good? ideas)

Insert a moan/complain (kekekeke) – The hub said it is all his because I do not eat pulled meat. What he said is true. I will never touch pulled meat of any kind that I am not able to SEE the chunk it has been pulled from! However this is different as I not only cooked it but I actually know the famer whose cow this belonged to.

Update – After packing I found 3kg of beef just gave me 2kg plus after cooking.

Pomelo, prawns and cellophane noodles salads is my final decision.

A friend gave me a pomelo a couple of weeks ago and I have been wondering what to do with it. I know that some medicines may interact dangerously with pomelos and some pomelo hybrids, including grapefruit, some limes, and some oranges and I am taking one medication that makes it not so great for me to mix pomelo though I am very partial to the pink fruit variety. Hence I have been wondering what to do with my gift. I wanted something fresh. 

As luck would have it, the friend is coming here for lunch so I have decided to feed it back to her in the form of a salad, a pomelo, prawns and cellophane noodles salads. To my utter surprise the hubby love it too!

Torch Ginger Flower Chicken cooked with belacan aka shrimp paste – Sambal Belacan Ayam Bunga Kantan. For reason unknown I love torch ginger, the smell, the taste, it’s fragrance, I just love them. When I got 2 huge jars from a friend who came back to UK from Malaysia I happily spent days thinking how to make good use of them. My friend spent time going to the markets in Ipoh, (Perak, Malaysia) and bought all the bunga kantan he could find, sliced them and semi fried them in oil. Then he packed them into jars and brought them all the way to UK for me with love.

Hence this dish – Torch Ginger Flower Chicken cooked with shrimp paste